holidays

Circle your calendars for a wonderful holiday treat! On Sunday, December 4 from 11am-3pm the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum will welcome holiday celebrants of all ages to join in the fun at the annual Holidays Take Flight.

There will be something for everyone, from making ornaments to take home and display on your family tree, to decorating (and eating) holiday cookies, to having your photo taken with Balloon Pilot Santa. Live holiday-themed music will keep everyone entertained, and this year's special attraction brings a touch of space fantasy to the mix.

From 1:30-3pm everyone who brings an unwrapped toy for the museum's TOYS FOR TOTS collection, will have the opportunity to take a photo with BB-8 of Albuquerque. For Star Wars fans, capturing their photo with the loveable little robot is a special treat!

Kids will have a blast with Balloon Snowland, an immersive play experience where they can bounce around in "balloon snow."

Live entertainment for the celebration will feature: Popular local musician Andy Mason sharing the stories behind popular holiday music and inviting everyone to sing along.

Admission is free, but donations to our science and education programs are welcomed!

Coping after Christmas? There will be DWI checkpoints in the Northwest Command Area (I-40 area) on December 26 and 27 starting around 10 pm and going till 3 am. If you picked up our Boozy Gift Guide, maybe you'll remember I wrote about how to get home safely after a night of shenanigans (aka getting sloshed).

You can bookmark it, cut it out of the paper and put it in your wallet or bra, write it down on your arm, hell, get it tattooed on your arm; just don't drive drunk!

Ah, the holiday season. A time for love, sharing, and generosity towards our fellow man. Alas, it is really a season of the blatant and rather terrifying corporate takeover of the once happy holidays, when mankind turns into a creature of cutthroat consumerism, who is generally cold and much poorer than he'd like to be.

The Santaland Diaries show you this in bulk; these creatures are all you see as a department store elf. David Sedaris chronicles the story of a slacker turned into Santa's little helper, the play's been given great reviews by all the good New York people: the NY Times, Newsday and The New Yorker.

It's now or never, folks, the show plays weekend only. Buy your tickets for only $10 at the South Broadway Cultural Center (1025 Broadway Blvd SE). Curtain is at 8pm on the Friday, Dec. 18 and Saturday, Dec. 19 Check out our Facebook for a chance to win two free tickets to the show.

It’s that time of year, people! We’re smack-dab in the middle of the holiday season. A lot of emotions surface right now because it’s the end of the year and people are going over everything that’s happened to them: the radical things, bogus things, and the icky, dumb grody shit. I’ve noticed a lot of people are having a really hard time right now, and that’s totally okay. It’s okay to not be okay! And it’s definitely okay to be okay! I got you, fam. But here are my super extra special, personal (and, like, serious) self-care tips for how to deal with the Holiday Blues.

-Don’t be so hard on yourself. Would you criticize the person you love the most for doing these things? Um, no. So take a chill pill, dude. You’re just, like, dust floating in the wind or something.

-Stop hanging around lame, shitty people. I don’t care if they’re friends or family, you don’t deserve that. If someone makes you gag, then don’t fuck with that shit. And also if that means being alone on a dumb, consumerist holiday, who cares! You totally deserve to feel safe and not miserable.

-Keep in mind that everyone is going through a lot right now (and also always, I guess). So like, you don’t need to be nice to everyone but you definitely don’t need to be mean or rude, either.

-Drink some water and have a snack! If you think you’ll feel better eating something healthy, then do that. But, like, if you think you’ll feel better eating junk then you should totally do that! If that doesn’t work, try a drink like water or juice or tea. Don’t overthink calories or anything, ‘cause you need to eat and drink to live! My favorites are cinnamon vanilla tea, dried seaweed and dark chocolate covered toffee sprinkled with pistachio bits. Yum!

-Things will get shitty before they improve, you’ll be a-okay. As someone who has had bouts of severe depression since I was 11, I pinky promise, it definitely gets better. It’s just like, a lot of things suck right now. But whatever!

-TREAT YO’SELF, boo, ‘cause you are a bitchin’, beautiful Mx and you totally, totally, deserve the best from and for yourself!

It’s Wednesday November 26th and this rude ass storm is ruining Thanksgiving!

Meanwhile in Southern California, three six-year-old girls are cooler than we will ever be, and skateboard all the damn time.

In Pakistan, 20-year-old Aansoo Kohli teaches 150 children in a shed, isn’t paid for the job, and is finishing her Bachelors Degree,

And if you’re American and you're reading this from your tent outside Best Buy while you wait for a 99 cent TV, joke's on you! You’re doing it wrong!

A local “cafeteria angel” is paying off student lunch debts at elementary schools anonymously and depositing money into needy families' bank accounts, because apparently some people care about other people?

And while the rest of us are consuming questionable amounts of alcohol this “holiday” season and arguing with our racist in-laws, these dogs are all that really matter this Thanksgiving.

Americans can't do anything right. We can’t even dress ourselves! Which really pisses Kate Midleton off. C'mon, you guys! Get it together!

Thanks to cottage industry supersite Etsy, you can buy holiday gifts made by people in your city. Amy Dalness outlines her favorite items in this week’s feature: Etsy-Querque. She also lists great local businesses with rad gift options. Keep the cash circulating in our stretch of desert.

Your nutritious guide to holiday movies

We don't usually get fantastic winter snowfalls that look like an L.L.Bean catalog, but we do have the River of Lights. Beginning this Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., get the family to the ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden (2601 Central NW). Thousands of holiday lights are on display in the shape of penguins, lions, dinosaurs, polar bears, birds, fish and other specimens from our natural world. Don't worry, parents; these animals don't bite. Admission is $8 for adults and $4 for children. The River of Lights runs daily through Dec. 30, except on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. For more information and a schedule of special Park and Ride nights, visit cabq.gov/biopark.